Q: After watching their two seasons play out so far, is it safe to say the Broncos have been the winner of the 2011 draft, drafting Von Miller (after) the Panthers drafted Cam Newton?

A: Trevor, part of the intriguing thing about the draft is, after months of preparation, countless hours of research, potentially-historic decisions are made by NFL franchises in a matter of minutes on draft day.

And the role of things you can’t see in a player, those internal intangibles that make one prospect rise above others when the physical makeup is similar, continues to be the difference between what becomes of those prospects.

There is also the matter of good fortune in regard to injuries and whether or not the franchise itself is stable enough and believes in the role of the draft enough to offer the kind of infrastructure that enables draft picks to consistently grow into productive players. It doesn’t do a franchise any good if the scouts identify the players correctly and the team doesn’t develop them or play them when they arrive.

In terms of the 2011 draft, the die was cast for the Broncos the moment the Panthers selected Newton at No. 1. The Broncos quickly grabbed Miller, who Broncos executive vice president of football operations John Elway believed was the kind of impact player the team needed.

Edge rusher, along with quarterback and left tackle, is one of the foundation positions in franchise building. When Elway ranks them, he also adds cornerback to the list.

But the real question would have been what the Broncos would have done with the No. 1 pick. Miller was likely a higher-rated player on their board, so they may have even taken Miller at No. 1 had they had the chance.

Elway has always said quarterback is “far and away” the most important position in team building, so Elway and the Broncos scouted the quarterbacks hard going into the 2011 and 2012 drafts — Elway’s first two with the team.

But Elway wasn’t going to reach on a quarterback prospect he didn’t believe was worth the No. 2 pick. So, after Newton went No. 1 in ’11, the Broncos didn’t force the issue and select a quarterback at No. 2 anyway as some teams may have done.

They went with Miller and now have one of the league’s most dominant defensive players who is a top candidate for defensive player of the year honors this year after winning the league’s defensive rookie of the year award.

Newton is still considered a physically gifted prospect who won’t reach his full potential until he brings more maturity to his approach. And unlike Miller, who is playing for a playoff team, Newton plays for a rebuilding team that is poised to make yet another coaching change and has already fired the general manager who selected him.

That’s not nearly as good a support system as Miller has and may affect what Newton can be as a player for years to come. A player already battling maturity issues is only going to have a more difficult time repairing those things with a franchise that is rebuilding its roster as well as its coaching and front-office staffs.

In terms of looking back at a draft and wondering what might have been, there are many longtime personnel people in the league who look back on the ’83 draft simply because of its place in draft history.

There are six players from the first round of that draft already in the Hall of Fame, including Elway. Eric Dickerson was selected No. 2 overall by the Los Angeles Rams. Bruce Matthews, a Hall of Famer who played for two decades in the league and had the distinction of starting at least a season’s worth of games at all five positions in the offensive line, went No. 9.

Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly went No. 14, while Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino went 27th, the penultimate pick of the first round at that time. Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green went with the last pick of the first round at 28th.

If the current environment existed then, there is no way those quarterbacks go so low. Then the feeling was a prospect, other than the consensus No. 1 like Elway, was coming into the league to watch and learn for a few years, so quarterbacks were often pushed down the board.

That’s not the feeling now and it’s changed how teams routinely push the quarterbacks up the board, past players that objectively may be prospects with higher grades.

For the Broncos, their best pick in ’83 — Elway was a Colts pick traded to Denver — came with the 310th overall pick in the 12th round, one Karl Mecklenburg.

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